


Starlight, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight

by blueboxesandtrafficcones



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Ninth doctor references, Pre-Series, first/last meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 15:09:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11534781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones
Summary: Rose Tyler makes a wish for a better life.  It's just around the corner, but when the person offering it has a time machine...Rose has a confusing conversation with a woman she's never met, yet somehow thinks the world of her.orRose Tyler’s having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  Lying under the stars, wishing for something better, a strange woman tells her not to give up.





	Starlight, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Not mine, obviously. Assumes 13 will be dressed/look like the promo.
> 
> In celebration of Jodie.

Lying on a bench at the edge of the basketball court, looking up at the sky with only a thin blanket to keep her warm, eighteen year old Rose Tyler treasured her solitude. Her day had started bad with a missed alarm, and got worse from there.  After a shouting match with her mother, she’d grabbed her favorite blanket and headed outside.  Given that it was late February, she was alone with her thoughts.

Staring up at the sky, she couldn’t help but wish for something better.

A sudden noise from her left caused her tense, quickly sitting up to get a look at who was there. Silently cursing her stupidity for being out alone in the dark, she made her voice as threatening as she could.

“Who’s there?  I warn you, I’ll put up a fight!  You can’t get to me easily.”  She channels all her simmering rage into an angry glare, hoping to scare the person off.

Watching the figure emerge from the dark, ready for anything, she was taken aback to see a woman smirking at her.  Mid-thirties and blonde, dressed in a very utilitarian style, she was holding up her hands in mock surrender.

“You’re in no danger from me.”  The strange woman assured her, stopping a few feet away.  “I was wandering by, thought I’d check on you – what’re you doing lying on a bench over here anyway?”

Still tense, Rose carefully looks the woman up and down as she considers her response.  “Just thinking.  Bad day – hoped looking at the stars would help.”

The woman’s eyes brighten, though Rose can’t for the life of her figure out what’s so amusing.

“And did it?”  She steps slightly closer, and after a moment Rose sits on the bench, leaving plenty of space for the other woman.

“No.”  She confesses.  “I love the stars – always have – but… I dunno.  Sometimes they just make me feel small.”

The woman carefully sits, well at the other end of the bench, giving Rose her distance.

“I know what you mean.” She nods, staring vacantly across the blacktop.  “Like time just marches on – nothing you do can stop it, and things just have a way of… happening.”

Rose shoots her a look of understanding.  “Yeah. But it’s also an escape, you know?”

The woman lets out a bitter laugh.  “Do I ever.”

They’re silent for a few minutes, just looking up at the sky.

“Do you want to know a secret?”  Rose random asks.  She has no idea who this woman is, or why she’s bothering with a girl like Rose, but some instinct in her says that here, trusting is ok.  After all, it’s the same instinct that told her to run far and fast from Jimmy Stone.

“Sure.”

“Sometimes I wish…” Suddenly shy, Rose bites at her thumbnail.  Twisting to look at her, the other woman gets an odd look in her eye when she sees that.

“Yeah?”  She prompts softly, studying Rose’s face.

“Sometimes I wish I could just… go.  Among the stars, I mean.  Think about it – they tell you in school, there’s all these other planets and stars out there.  Can you imagine?  Being able to see them – not just in pictures, but actually be up there among them.” She lapses into silence, embarrassed by her fantastical thoughts.

“Is that something you would like?”  It’s an odd question, but Rose rolls with it.  It’s an odd night.

“Yeah.  Though, truth be told, if someone walked up to me today and said,  _‘Hey, wanna see them?_ ’, I’d probably chicken out.”

The woman shoots her a look. “Why?”

Rose shrugs.  “Not good enough.  Besides, I couldn’t leave my mum.  I’m all she’s got.”

The woman nods, a sad look on her face.  “I understand about your mum – but don’t you ever,  _ever_  think you’re not good enough.  You’re the best, Rose Tyler, and anyone capable of giving you the stars would only  _take_  the best.  Have faith in yourself – you have no idea yet what you’re capable of, but it’s anything you put your mind to – you’re absolutely fantastic.”

Before Rose can say anything, surprised more at the vehemence behind them rather than the words themselves, the woman abruptly stands.  “Wha- you’re going?”  She asks, surprised.

The woman throws her a wry smile.  “If I don’t leave now, I never will.”  Despite her words, she just stands there, studying Rose as though she holds the secrets of the universe.

Rose is quiet but confused; the woman hadn’t once made a bit of sense.  Finally, as though wrenching herself away, the woman turns and starts walking back the way she came.

Rose lets her, though everything in her wants to stop the woman and never let her go.  Watching until she fades into the dark night, Rose decides she’s had enough of the stars for now, and packs up to head home and make up with Jackie.

It’s not until hours later, when she’s curled up under the duvet and drifting off to sleep, she realizes she never told the woman her name.


End file.
